By Sentinel Staff
After two days of effort, septuagenarian Ray Majeski finished his seven-mile, get-out-the-vote walk from the ferry terminal to downtown this morning.
By taking on the challenge Majeski hoped to encourage voter turnout in a non-partisan manner, he told the Sentinel.
“I just think that if I could walk close to seven miles to go ahead and vote- I know it’s purely symbolic– there is no good reason any American can’t get up and go vote,” Majeski said after finishing the walk.
At 76 and with recent back problems, Majeski completed the trek on his walker alongside a dozen others.
On Monday, he and his group covered about five miles before Majeski’s legs became painful and he stopped for the night, he said. The group conversed along the route, talking about most any topic aside from politics.
“I didn’t want to show any partisanship toward any particular candidate and nobody did. It was really funny. I bumped into people along the way who are Biden supporters and Trump supporters. Everybody behaved themselves,” he said.
Ray Majeski, left, and Jeff Budd wave as they walk down Halibut Point Road Monday on their way to Harrigan Centennial Hall as part of an effort to encourage Sitkans to cast votes. Majeski and Budd organized the seven-mile walk from Starrigavan to downtown which drew about a dozen participants. The election is Tuesday with polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
The support from other Sitkans along the route gave him motivation to carry on, he said. A friendly man and former Sitka police officer and harbormaster, Majeski knows many Sitkans.
“It was just the support that was shown to me by people… It gave me a lot of strength,” he said.
Majeski’s friend and collaborator Jeff Budd also participated and said the walking party was lucky with the weather.
“We got really pretty lucky because there was one little rain shower for ten minutes… other than that no umbrellas and people were friendly, people honked,” he said.
Like Majeski, Budd said conversations along the way were kept friendly and apolitical.
“People were friendly and we kept it civil… We talked about everything except for politics. We really got to know people,” Budd said.
Majeski finished the route this morning, and voted around 10 a.m.
Polls in Harrigan Centennial Hall close at 8 p.m. today.
